Consecrating Oneself to the Sacred Heart

“When the Church, in the days immediately succeeding her institution, was oppressed beneath the yoke of the Caesars, a young Emperor saw in the heavens a cross, which became at once the happy omen and cause of the glorious victory that soon followed. And now, to-day, behold another blessed and heavenly token is offered to our sight-the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a cross rising from it and shining forth with dazzling splendor amidst flames of love.” 

“Herein must all hopes be set, from hence must the salvation of men be sought and expected.” Pius XI commented on these words in the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor: "And rightly indeed is that said, Venerable Brethren. For is not the sum of all religion and therefore the pattern of a more perfect life contained in that most auspicious sign. . . ?"

Before adding: “But assuredly among those things which properly pertain to the worship of the Most Sacred Heart, a special place must be given to that Consecration, whereby we devote ourselves and all things that are ours to the Divine Heart of Jesus, acknowledging that we have received all things from the everlasting love of God.” 

“When Our Savior had taught Margaret Mary Alacoque, the most innocent disciple of His Heart, how much He desired that this duty of devotion should be rendered to Him by men, moved in this not so much by His own right as by His immense charity for us; she herself, with her spiritual father, Claude de la Colombiere, rendered it the first of all. Thereafter followed, in the course of time, individual men, then private families and associations, and lastly civil magistrates, cities and kingdoms.”

The following, written nearly a hundred years ago, is of burning relevance: “But since in the last century, and in this present century, things have come to such a pass, that by the machinations of wicked men the sovereignty of Christ Our Lord has been denied and war is publicly waged against the Church, by passing laws and promoting plebiscites repugnant to Divine and natural law, nay more by holding assemblies of them that cry out, "We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14).

“from the aforesaid Consecration there burst forth over against them in keenest opposition the voice of all the clients of the Most Sacred Heart, as it were one voice, to vindicate His glory and to assert His rights: "Christ must reign" (1 Cor. 15:25); "Thy kingdom come" (Matt 6:10).”

It therefore appears that the consecration to the Heart of Jesus, of individuals and institutions, is a privileged means of working for the reign of Christ, and of participating in "restoring all things in Christ.” Let us then see of what such a consecration consists. We will try to rely on the Common Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas.

Consecration: An Act of the Virtue 

If we look at St. Thomas' definition of consecration, we will quickly see that what he calls it is not what we ordinarily understand by the word. What we call consecration, St. Thomas would undoubtedly call devotion. To consecrate oneself to the Sacred Heart is to dedicate oneself to its service: "I invite you," writes St. Margaret Mary, "to make a complete donation of your whole being, spiritual and corporeal, of all that you can do and have done."

Now, for St. Thomas, devotion is precisely the act by which persons “devote themselves to God so as to subject themselves wholly to Him”; it is “the act of the will whereby a man offers himself for the service of God Who is the last end.[i]” The promptness of this gift indicates its totality and radicality: indeed, God has an offering of our whole person. It is an act of the virtue of religion, which stems from the gratitude we must have for God's love, the obedience due to His sovereign authority, and the reverence due to His greatness.

For the specific consecration to the Sacred Heart, without excluding other motives, we will especially remember that of gratitude for blessings received: indeed, the Heart of Jesus is the symbol of His love: devoting oneself to this love is a privileged way of responding to Him.

Nothing to Lose and Everything to Gain

St. Thomas says this, speaking of the virtue of religion: "We pay God honor and reverence, not for His sake (because He is of Himself full of glory to which no creature can add anything), but for our own sake, because the very fact that we revere and honor God, our mind is subjected to Him; wherein its perfection consists[ii]. . . .” Consecration is a disinterested gift of self to God, but the primary beneficiary is man himself.

Giving oneself to the Heart of Jesus, deciding to direct one's entire life to seeking His glory and responding to His love, is an act of abandonment. The consecrated person no longer belongs to himself: his life—and especially his eternal destiny—is in the best possible hands.

We can therefore see consecration to the Sacred Heart as a kind of exchange or contract summed up in the famous words of Our Lord: “The more you occupy yourself with My interests, the more will I occupy Myself with your interests.” Since the consecrated soul belongs to the Heart of Jesus, all his legitimate concerns become those of Christ, Who will know how to resolve them in the best way according to the divine plan: "Why are you troubled and agitated?"

"Entrust your problems to Me, and all will be calm." Truly, I tell you, every act of true, trusting, and total surrender to Me produces the effect you desire and resolves difficult situations. Surrendering to Me does not mean being tormented, worried, and in despair by addressing an agitated prayer to me later so that I may act according to your wishes; but it is to change agitation into prayer.

"Surrendering means calmly closing the eyes of your soul, turning your mind away from all tribulation, and entrusting yourself to me so that I alone may work, saying to me: 'I entrust this to You. It is up to You to think of it for me.' ... You, in your sorrow, pray that I may work. But you pray that I may work as you wish. You do not entrust yourself to me, but you want me to adapt to your ideas.

“You are not infirm people asking the doctor for treatment, but you are suggesting it to him. Do not do this, but pray as I taught you in the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Hallowed be Thy name,’ that is, may it be glorified in this need of mine; ‘Thy kingdom come,’ that is, may everything that happens to me contribute to Your kingdom, in us and in the world.”

Living One’s Consecration Concretely

Devotion—and therefore consecration—is not an act like any other; it is at the root of other actions. Thus, consecrating oneself to the Sacred Heart is not a one-time act. It is the decision to seek to honor it, to know it and make it known, to love it and make it loved through other, more specific actions. Some examples of methods that the consecrated soul will use:

“Prayer: that is, to be constantly petitioning Heaven for the spread of My Kingdom… to ask in the church, at home, in the street, during your daily work: ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come!’ That is the aspiration which must be on your lips the whole day long. Repeat it, then, twenty, fifty, a hundred, two hundred times a day until it becomes a habit with you.”

“Sacrifice: In the first place the passive sacrifice of acceptance How many inconveniences, troubles and sorrows — sometimes small, sometimes great — come your way every day as they came also to Me, to My holy Mother, and to My saints. If you could bear all this in silence, with patience, even with joy if possible.… How many crosses are wasted by people!… Then there is the active sacrifice of self-denial. Try to acquire the habit of constantly overcoming yourself in small things.

“Occupations: Some people say they cannot work for the Kingdom of Christ because they are always too busy; as if the very duties of their state and walk in life could not be converted into works of the apostolate by being accomplished well!

“Exterior Apostolate: Sometimes you could further some enterprise of My Divine Heart as, for example, by recommending this or that practice of the devotion to those with whom you come into frequent contact. You might be able to persuade them to consecrate themselves to Me as you have done yourself. You may find it hard to talk about the subject; then why not pass on a pamphlet or little booklet?… How many souls have been won by these unknown missionaries[iii]!”

Consecration: The Fruit of Meditation

St. Thomas connects devotion—which we call consecration—to meditation and contemplation. As such, it is of particular interest to former retreatants. Let him explain this connection to us: “As has been stated, devotion is an act of the will to the effect that man surrenders himself readily to the service of God. Now every act of will proceeds from some consideration, since the object of the will is a good understood. . . the will arises from intelligence.”…

"Consequently meditation must needs be the cause of devotion, insofar through meditation man conceives the thought of surrendering himself to God’s service. Indeed a twofold consideration leads him thereto. The one is the consideration of God’s goodness and loving kindness, according to Ps. 72:28, ‘It is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God’: and this consideration wakens love,’ which is the proximate cause of devotion.”

“The other consideration is that of man’s own shortcomings, on account of which he needs to lean on God, according to Ps. 120:1,2 'I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me: my help is from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth’; and this consideration shuts out presumption whereby man is hindered from submitting to God because he leans on His strength.[iv]”

Divine goodness and human misery: these are the two great realities which the Christian soul must penetrate through meditation in order to understand the necessity of giving himself to God. The former retreatant will recognize here two major themes of the first week of the Exercises, culminating in the gift of self to the service of Christ the King, a prelude to the second week.

One may also see, through these lines from St. Thomas, the same idea we mentioned above: namely, that devotion—we say consecration—is a surrender of oneself to God in order to serve Him, and that from this gift, we expect the benefits of divine help. The Christian who places his soul in God's hands first pays homage to Him, but also places himself in a safe place, for God takes jealous care of what is His. 

Furthermore, a remark by the Angelic Doctor points us in the direction of the specific consecration to the Sacred Heart; he explains why "frequently we are urged to greater devotion by considering Christ’s Passion and the other mysteries of His humanity than by considering the greatness of His Godhead.": "Matters concerning the Godhead are, in themselves, the strongest incentive to love and consequently to devotion, because God is supremely loveable.”

“Yet such is the weakness of the human mind that it needs a guiding hand, not only to the knowledge, but also the love of Divine things by means of certain sensible objects known to us. Chief among these is the humanity of Christ, according to the words of the [Christmas] Preface, 'that through knowing God visibly, we may be caught up to the love of things invisible.’ Wherefore matters relating to Christ’s humanity are the chief incentive to devotion.”[v] 

The humanity of Christ is the privileged means of grasping the love of God. Now, this love of God, manifested in Our Lord, is His Heart. Moreover, the Heart of Jesus also speaks to us of His infinite mercy, which comes to meet our destitution. Now, as we have said, devotion comes from considering both the goodness of God and our poverty.

Thus, consecration to the Sacred Heart—by which we give ourselves to God through His Heart, in which we find rest—appears as a great means (if not the means par excellence) of putting devotion, as defined by St. Thomas, into practice.

The Joy of the Consecrated Person

St. Thomas Aquinas concludes his study of the act of devotion (which, let us recall, we believe to be equivalent to what we call consecration) by commenting on this phrase from the Lenten liturgy asking that "we who are punished by fasting may be comforted by a holy devotion.” Consecration is therefore a cause of joy.

Let us repeat, in fact, that we consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart in gratitude for His love, and to find in Him the surest refuge; consecration flows from the consideration of God's goodness and our misery.

"Now, the consideration of God's goodness relates to what the will seeks in giving itself to Him, and this view is followed by joy." Submitting oneself to God by consecrating oneself to Him means opening one's soul to Him so that He may fill it. The memory of the goal one seeks is the cause of a profound joy full of Hope. Such joy overflows in little Thérèse of Lisieux when she consecrates herself to merciful love (that is, in a certain sense, to the Sacred Heart):

"O my God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and to make You Loved, to work for the glory of the Holy Church by saving the souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God, to be Yourself my Sanctity!”

"I thank You, O my God! for all the graces You have granted me, especially of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy that I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the scepter of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in Heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion….”

“After earth's Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.”

“In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a victim of holocaust to Your merciful Love, asking you to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus may I become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!” 

“May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.”

“I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until, the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!”

The consideration of our misery, which invites us to consecrate ourselves to the Heart of Jesus, is in itself sad, but this sadness is resolved in the peaceful consolation brought by the hope of divine help. This peace emerges from the finale of Fr. La Colombière's Consecration to the Sacred Heart:

"I feel in myself a great desire to please You and a great inability to achieve it without a great light and a very special help that I can only expect from You. Do Your will in me, Lord; I oppose it, I feel it well; but I would like very much, it seems to me, not to oppose it.”

"It is up to You to do everything, Divine Heart of Jesus Christ; You alone will have all the glory of my sanctification, if I make myself a saint; this seems to me clearer than day; but it will be a great glory for You, and it is for this reason alone that I desire perfection.”

St. Margaret Mary’s Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart 

These few considerations on consecration to the Heart of Jesus have allowed us to see, by connecting it to the devotion spoken of by St. Thomas Aquinas, that it is the prompt, that is, entire and total, gift of our person to God through His Sacred Heart, symbol of His infinite merciful love; it is the best response to His love and to Fr. La Colombière's complaint: "He loves and He is not loved."

 

From this sincere and lived offering results a great security, since the Sacred Heart takes particular care of what belongs to Him. As St. Margaret Mary says, the Sacred Heart "will take care to sanctify us in the measure that we take care to glorify Him.”

Since example is the best invitation to consecrate oneself—personally and as a family—let us conclude with St. Margaret Mary’s Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart:

"I, (first name), give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being save to honor, love, and glorify the Sacred Heart. 

This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His and to do all things for love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him.

"I, therefore, take Thee, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death.”

Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God Thy Father,  and turn away from me the strokes of His just anger. O Heart of Love, I place all my confidence in Thee, for I fear everything from my own weakness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Thy goodness and bounty. 

Do Thou consume in me all that can displease Thee or resist Thy holy will; let Thy pure love imprint Thee so deeply upon my heart, that I shall nevermore be able to forget Thee or be separated from Thee; may I obtain from all Thy loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Thee, for in Thee I desire to place all my happiness and all my glory, living and dying in very bondage to Thee."

Amen.
 

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[i] II-II, q.82, a.1, c.

[ii] II-II, q.81, a.7, c.

[iii] Fr. Florentino Alcaniz, SJ, Personal Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, p. 23 sq. This beautiful brochure is available free of charge upon written request directed to [email protected] or by mail to the Association Reine de la Paix, 2 rue du Château – BP 24 – 53170 Saint Denis du Maine.

[iv] II-II, q.82, a.3, c.

[v] II-II, q.82, a.3, ad.2